A variety of dolls have been provided by practitioners in the art which relate to simulated eating and drinking and which perform these simulations to varying degrees of realism. Drinking dolls in particular have enjoyed substantial development and attention by practitioners. As a result, drinking dolls have been provided in various designs and themes. However, all generally utilize a mouth aperture and, in some instances, moving lips together with a tube conducting liquid from the mouth aperture to an interior reservoir within the doll abdomen. Typically a baby bottle having a nipple suitable for insertion in a fitting attachment to the doll mouth aperture is provided. Often sound circuits are provided in which the doll responds to the administering of liquid by the user with contended sounds and/or cries in the absence of such. In most such drinking dolls, a liquid is ingested into the doll body and is collected within a reservoir. In some, this collected liquid is released through the lower torso to simulate wetting while in others the retained liquid must be emptied by the user. The retained liquid in such dolls often creates a messy situation due to the requirement that an emptying tube, valve, and port must be provided. In addition, the need to continuously empty the interior bladder detracts from the realism of the doll since this is an unnatural activity. Also such dolls very often utilize a very large volume internal bladder or reservoir which detracts from the realism of the doll as liquid churns within the reservoir interior.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,005,283 issued to Cohn sets forth a LIP MOVING MECHANISM FOR A DOLL OR THE LIKE having a resilient doll head and face joined to a doll torso. Within the doll head an internal aperture is formed and an apparatus is operative upon the mouth to cause it to open and close simulating lip movement. A tube leads from the doll mouth to a reservoir within the torso of the doll. A nipple and bottle is inserted into the mouth aperture and the lip movement adds realism to the activity.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,016,651 issued to Brudney sets forth a DOLL MOUTH having a doll head supporting a position actuated mouth valve which receives a feeding bottle. At one position of the doll, the mouth valve is closed while at an alternate position the mouth valve is open facilitating the ingestion of liquid.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,945,321 issued to Carter sets forth an IMITATIVE NURSING DOLL having a doll supporting a pivotable arm and a hand thereon for securing a nursing bottle. The hand and arm are pivotally supported to facilitate positioning the nipple of the nursing bottle within the doll's mouth.
U.S. Pat. No. 427,927 issued to Steiner sets forth a DOLL having a mouth aperture coupled to a passage extending through the doll head and exiting at the back of the neck. A tube is coupled through the passage and is secured to the straw of a liquid bottle. The remaining end of the tube exits downwardly and terminates in a reservoir supported beneath the seat of the doll.
Still other patents show various related structures. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,048 issued to Seekins sets forth a DUAL VALVE LIQUID TRANSFER TUBE FOR USE IN COMBINATION WITH A PROTECTIVE MASK while DES. U.S. Pat. No. 217,317 issued to Homorodean, Jr. et al sets forth a MULTIPLY SPIRALLED CURVED DRINKING STRAW. In addition, German Patent 405,500 sets forth a MULTIPLY FEATURED DOLL INCLUDING AN ASSOCIATED NURSING BOTTLE while French Patent 432,650 sets forth a DRINKING DOLL having an interior reservoir within the doll torso and a tube leading therefrom upwardly to a mouth aperture. The tube includes a vertical portion to confine liquid ingestion to the circumstances in which the doll is substantially horizontal.
While the foregoing described prior art devices have provided some improvement in the art, and have in some instances enjoyed commercial success, they remain subject to various limitations including the difficulty of retaining a large liquid mass within the doll. In addition, such prior art devices often fail to achieve sufficient realism or maximizing the enjoyment by young children. In further addition, the need for emptying internal liquid reservoirs in many of the prior art dolls further limits the attractiveness of the toy.